Friday, 31 August 2012

With the school holidays coming to a close we have been doing a dutiful tour of visits to see family we rarely get to see. We have just returned from a week spent in Sarajevo with my husbands family. I have traveled a lot, from Cambodia, Indonesia, India and all that lies inbetween to almost all the countries that make up Europe but this is one place I find very hard to visit.
Perhaps its because we roadshow ourselves from one Aunt to another, one cousin to another with conversations translated and so much food being offered that you simply can't refuse a bite in case you offend, despite how your stomach feels so full you barely have room for lungs. Perhaps because its so hard to unwind and slow down with so much going on and having to ensure the kids are happy, cool and not over-exhausted. Or perhaps because it reminds me of my husbands battles, of his sadness of what has happened to his country, his family, the memories of his childhood obliterated by the scenes he saw before he came to London. Perhaps because its recent history haunts the town and faces in it and reminds me of the atrocities that were happening whilst I was happily listening to miss sarajevo by U2. Perhaps, because I cannot voice myself clearly with so much lost in translation, or the overbearing climate we have been met with on each visit or perhaps its all of that mixed in with visiting the mother-in-law.

When we arrived the summer temperatures had soared to 45 degrees in the capital so I couldn't take the girls into the city to show them the dichotomy of the capital, the parts I fell in love with when I first visited in 2004. The city's architecture reveals it history as though a picture painted by all those who have occupied it since 1461. Bosnia Herzegovina for most probably brings to mind the war that saw a 1,400 day siege upon the capital, the longest seize of a capital in modern day history. The city bares the scars of it still, as do its people. Though many of the family do not talk about what happened, the divide it caused is clear from people now scattered across the globe having being fortunate enough to escape, or their fate having cut their lives short by the war that saw an estimated 12,000 lives taken.
There are many newslinks and a video here,here and here of what was happening at the time, or to understand more take a look at wikipedia here.

The siege of Sarajevo, as it came to be popularly known, was an episode of such notoriety in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia that one must go back to World War II to find a parallel in European history. Not since then had a professional army conducted a campaign of unrelenting violence against the inhabitants of a European city so as to reduce them to a state of medieval deprivation in which they were in constant fear of death. In the period covered in this Indictment, there was nowhere safe for a Sarajevan, not at home, at school, in a hospital, from deliberate attack.

So, instead of a planned cruise around the city, visiting markets and showing off to the girls the beautiful city their father grew up in we instead headed out of the city to the cooler climes of the countryside to stay at Uncle Enver's newly built house. It is less of a house, but rather a huge ranch with big rooms and a whopping wrap around terrace with views over the rollings hills, forests and fields where his horses roam free. Horses that he breeds, Arabian horses, Lipizzaner's, and others that I can't recall. Oona insisted on renaming them as she couldn't pronounce their names; so they became , weetabix, apple, vanilla, red riding hood and so on. In the cooler hours of the day, early morning and early evening we would walk to discover fruit tress, coming home with baskets of plums, we would visit the horses offering them apples to eat from our hands and enjoy the stillness, the silence of the country. I even managed to do some reading and couldn't remember when I last sat and listened to the stillness of a day. We enjoyed a feast with more than 40 members of the family coming together some, seeing eachother for the first time in nearly 20 years. The girls had a wild time roaming the land that belongs to the ranch and are now begging for horses of their own! But we have promised they can ride when we next visit and hopefully then, at a cooler time of the year I can show them the city where their father would ride his bike, where he would sit and eat ice-cream with friends and maybe one day when the girls are much older they will begin to understand why London became home for their father and see the layers to him that I see. Until then we'll eat plums and ride horses.

Coming home I discovered that we've been featured on a wonderful and inspiring blog here where I tell the story behind the photo. A picture with a story that is still being written. Reminding me not just of the words I wrote that mean so much but more my love of how people unite, joining together to bring inspiration and spark imagination. I wrote about the company Capturing Childhood here, and love the work they do. I have learnt so much through them and am continuing to learn everyday. I highly recommend you go along to their website, and while you're there take a look at the series 'the story behind the photo', you'll discover me there as well as lots more of beautiful stories.

...... and finally, Oona has now moved into a 'big' bed sleeping her last night in the cotbed she outgrew but was reluctant to leave. I had to snap a picture before we took it down. The girls have asked we keep it, store it away for when they have children....... or maybe one day I'll need again?!

I suppose in a lot of ways this week has showed me how we have to let the past be and move forward

Thursday, 30 August 2012

We're excited to see that the creators behind the oh-so-desirable Mollie Makes magazine are launching a new 'sister' mag The Simple Things - it sounds right up our street, or lane nowadays!

I've had a peek inside here and it instantly makes me want to spend some time away from my screen and have some quality me-and-a-magazine time. An activity that is rare and usually reserved for holidays, but I think this new magazine is going to need some good old one-to-one!

So...what does it promise us?
A big dose of inspiration, an invitation to slow down and smell the roses. In their own words:It’s for people who want to downshift and backpedal, who want to make
the most of their homes, who want to grow their own vegetables however
small their garden, whose love of food is in the preparing and sharing
and who are as happy to revamp and upcycle as to buy new.

Well, I shall raise my mug of tea to that. Home-made, hand-made, home-grown, hand-me-down - a celebration of values that our generation are holding up good and true for our children to carry forward.

With my recent brave move from city to country in search of a lifestyle with space for the family to breathe and create, I'm hoping this magazine will spur me on.....in a gentle way of course!

Wednesday, 29 August 2012

From the moment we first discovered Little Duckling before the Sisters Guild adventure had even begun, it really did speak to us - the wholesome feel, the innocent yet well
tailored designs. Little Duckling feels like an old familiar friend, or a much-loved relative. These are the kind of 'made-to-last' clothes our own mama would seek out in small independent shops and dress us in. Of course, when our mama bought a dress it would be expected to be passed from sister to sister to sister. Cord dungarees and winter knits would see all 4 of us - including our little brother - through many, many winters! The great achievement of Little Duckling is reviving that important notion of quality clothes for children, tailored beautifully with style and longeivity in mind.

Each season we feel a moment of loveliness and homeliness when Little Duckling clothing arrives in the Boutique. All feels good in the world and we know the kids are going to be clothed in comfort and just the right amount of style.

Wednesday, 22 August 2012

We are very excited to be able to present to you the new designs from our Danish homewares fave RICE DK. The collection for Autumn & Winter 2012 includes this Spice Storage Tin. What a wonderful way to store spices for culinary delights. With different coloured inner tins it will provide a visual treat as well as a fragrant hit when you open the lid. I shall be gifting this to all my foodie friends for future birthdays, and....dare I say that word in August...Christmas!

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This is part of our Wednesday Woo collection. We also have other stories and features including our 'Monday Makery', 'I Spy' and 'The art of living'.
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To make sure you stay in the loop for future news and offers, be sure to sign up here:

This is part of our Wednesday Woo collection. We also have other stories and features including our 'Monday Makery', 'I Spy' and 'The art of living'.
If you'd like to receive our weekly newsletter to receive offers and news and find out the about our new collections sign up below.

Monday, 13 August 2012

I'm not a fan of the big multiplication tables with their brash colours and their dictatorial design. Wondering how much they actually appeal to children, if perhaps they walk past them never paying them much courtesy ignoring their very intention of paying them attention. But, I'm sure that having the times table around the house does help children to learn and to remember them. Maths was not a favourite subject of mine and my mind has a tendency to freeze when trying even the simplest of equations, perhaps if there had been a more fun approach when I was a child it wouldn't have scared me so much. So, of course I just had to make a non-scarey version that would be interactive and scrambled some card, scissors, paints and a ruler from the cupboard and made our very own multiplication house.

Rather than overbearing children with an unkindly set of 12 columns of numbers we chose a way of creating a fun and interactive table for each as we learn them. because the 1 times table is too complicated in its simplicity we began with the 2's. We can count in 2's and, when explaining what 'times' means its easy to find objects to put into 2's to use as visual aids because of course the first step to understanding the times tables is understanding what 'times' means.

'X' means 'lots of'. So, 3 x 2 means 3 lots of 2.

3 lots of 2 is 6

or

3 x 2 = 6

Here's how we made our Multiplication houses.

You will need:

Card - I used paper here and though it works fine card would make it look a lot smarter.

Scissors

Paint

Pencil

Ruler

Gluestick

Craft knife

Here's how:

Draw the outline of your house onto the card - whatever size you like depending on where you might put it. Cut it out.

To make the inner sleeve draw around your house shape like a template to create the answer sheet for the inside of your house. Cut this piece out, cutting inside the line to make it smaller than the the original.

Now taking your original house shape draw 12 windows and an extra one at the top. This is also when you can paint the windows though I didn't do this bit until later in retrospect it would have been easier at this stage. We painted each of the windows and then painted the numbers 1 through to 12 on top.

When the paint is dry cut out the top window completely, this is where the number for each table will show. Now using your craft knife cut along each of the horizontal lines of the window and just one of the vertical side of each. To prevent making marks on your surface do the cutting on top of a chopping board.

Use a ruler against the uncut edge of each window to fold back and open each one.

Take a larger piece of card to use as a backing and glue the bottom side and the 2 edges of your house to the card creating an open sleeve for your times tables to slide in and out.

Once the glue is dry slide your sleeve inside to the bottom. Then using a pencil write the number answer to each of the times table. So, for example if you are doing the 2 times table write '2' in the top window, then behind the door with '1' write '2' then the door with number '2' painted on write '4' keep going penciling in all the correct answers corresponding to each of the doors.

Slide the sleeve out and paint over the pencil numbers with the colour paint you wish. Once dry slide it back insde and hang you house where your child can play.

You can use the inner sleeve as a template for each of the times tables so once they've mastered the 2's times table move onto the 10's then the 5's, 3's and so on. Be sure to keep each of the inner sleeves so you can slide them back in to refresh their memories.

If you have a lot of wall space to spare you could make a row of houses 1 for each of the times tables. Far more appealing than the posters I think and I love that they're interactive. Or perhaps make 2 to put side by side and when Christmas comes around the children can design their own advents to slide inside.

If you have younger children you can make them with numbers on the windows and pictures inside showing the same number of objects . Or perhaps for those learning to read you could write phonic sounds on the windows with a word inside for that sound; 'b' for 'ball' 'sh' for 'shell' and so on. Once you've made the house with its windows the inner sleeve can change as much as you like.

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Monday, 6 August 2012

We've abandoned London for a couple of weeks and headed west to the recluse of Grannies garden. Though the sun only peered its head from behind the clouds occasionally and more than the occasional rain fell the girls adventured up and down, over and under, round and around the garden, albeit it shiny sequinned shoes aka 'Dorethy'!
Discovering a bird nest high up in the tree, watching bugs crawl here there and everywhere, stacking pebbles and stones into high tall toppling towers and making rubbings from trees. At 8.30 in the morning the garden was where the wild things were.

Sophia discovered a half box of domino's in the 'children's room' and with little sister in tow set off down the garden path and across the grass to the gravelled shade to find pebbles to paint so that she could complete the set.
With my craft cupboard 120 miles away we made do with a cotton bud and some nail varnish to get spotting the numbers.

When we leave we'll throw the pebbles back into the pile where they were found ready to be rediscovered when we next return to Grannies garden, and in that another game will begin.
Amazing where a little curiosity and a little resourcefulness can take you.

So, perhaps next time you're on a beach or walk across a gravelled path, pick some pebbles up fill your pockets and use them to create a game or perhaps paint them with simple pictures and decorations or alphabet and numbers.

Friday, 3 August 2012

Sisters and family had a super besti-festi-holiday at Lulworth Castle. We skipped and played under sunny skies. We shared the Sisters Guild treasures and met lots of lovely people. The children felt the wonder and freedom of being in a field full of lights and colour, music and theatre. It was a magnificent spectacle, a magical playground. An unforgettable adventure. Thank you Camp Bestival.

3 sisters shopping at Sisters Guild in silly specs

Lulworth Castle & giant flowers

BrightonArt, Chroma Collective and Two Tigers Fireworks joined forces
for the second year running to create a Fireworks and Projected
Animation Spectacular.
Inspired by the theme of the "Silly Olympics", the team was joined
this year by the genius animation company Persistent Peril.

What an incredible finale from an outstanding team.

We hope you all had a great festival adventure - see you there next year!

Thursday, 2 August 2012

When we moved to Frome at the beginning of the year we knew we were moving to a place full of creative people and an exciting atmosphere that you don't often find beyond the city. We weren't disappointed - this is no sleepy town. With the Sisters Guild business now firmly rooted in Somerset we've been feeling really inspired by local events and people. One afternoon whilst supping Tea with Tamsin of Tea 'n' Cake so began the first little local adventure of Sisters Guild, as part of a very exciting Pop Up Shop.

Frome is very proud of the Artisan Market which we heard so much talk about before it sprung up on 'the hill' in the summer. Every first Sunday of the month St Catherine's Hill is a bustle with stalls overflowing with wares, whimsy and wonderful food...

This pretty little shop, a hop up the steps from St Catherine Hill, will house some delectable pieces all brought together for the first time. It's a celebration of local talent and emphasises the important of buying LOCAL - supporting local businesses and British designers and makers.

Sisters Guild will be presenting our favourite new discoveries, the talented designer Sally Nencini, and the illustrator Ben Pearce.

Pop along to Pop Up Paul Street - for ONE WEEK ONLY

Saturday 4th August - Saturday 11th August

Paul Street, off St Catherine Hill, Frome

Oh, and did I mention there will be Tea and home-made cake too!
See you there
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